Chas's Music Column - Today In History - 19 - 22nd March

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Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:36 pm

Today In Music History, March 22: The Police Get A Record Deal

Birthdays:

William Shatner, of Star Trek and spoken word poetry fame, turns 81 today.

Today In:

1965 - Bob Dylan plugged in for the first time for the record Bringing It All Back Home, which was released today.

1997 - Paul McCartney's birth certificate was sold to a bidder for Beatles memorabilia for $84,146.

2003 - Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose sent the Offspring a cease and desist letter after they annnounced plans to call their new album Chinese Democrazy (You Snooze You Lose). Chinese Democracy is the name given to the long-awaited GNR album that eventually came out in 2008.

History Highlight:

Today in 1976, The Police signed to A&M Records. Their debut album, Outlandos D'Amour, was recorded with a budget of only £1,500 borrowed from drummer Stewart Copeland's brother Miles, who was the band's manager. It was recorded in an intermittent fashion over six months, with the band jumping in whenever the studio had free time or another band's sessions were canceled. We played the album's first single, "Can't Stand Losing You."



Today In Music History, March 21: The Jam Debuts At Number One

Today In:

1956 - Carl Perkins was injured in a car crash that killed both his manager and his brother, Jay. By the time Perkins got out of the hospital, Elvis Presley had already had a hit with Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes."

1964 - The Rolling Stones' cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", featuring Phil Spector on the maracas, peaked at No. 3 on the English Charts. It's also the first time ever that all ten singles in the British top ten were by homegrown acts.

1976 - David Bowie and Iggy Pop were busted for suspected marijuana possession in New York, but charges were later dropped.

1991 - Renowned guitar inventor, Leo Fender, passed away.



2003 - U.K. police cleared Massive Attack's Robert "3-D" Del Naja of internet child porn offenses following a raid on his home in February.

History Highlight:

Today in 1980 in England, The Jam entered the singles chart at No. 1 with "Going Underground." It was their first single, and any tune hitting #1 straight out of the gate was a rare feat at the time. "Going Underground" was not released on any of the band's six studio albums, although it has appeared on many compilation/re-releases since then.


Today In Music History, March 20: John and Yoko Tie The Knot


Birthdays:

Jimmie Vaughan, guitarist of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and brother of Stevie Ray, is 61 today.



Today In:

1980 - A 28-year-old truck driver took the office manager of Electra/Asylum Records' New York branch hostage. Joseph Riviera demanded that either Jackson Browne or the Eagles give him money in order to start his own business. Neither responded, and he eventually surrendered to New York police.

2002 - Bluegrass made a mainstream comeback when the No. 1 album in America was the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou?

2002 - Ailing music giant EMI - home to the Beatles and Norah Jones - announced it would cut 400 acts from its roster in an effort to save $140 million.

2003 - The day America begins bombing Iraq, Bruce Springsteen opens his show in Melbourne, Australia with an acoustic version of "Born in the U.S.A" followed by his cover of Edwin Starr's "War (What Is It Good For)".

History Highlight:

Today in 1969, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar, Spain, forever consigning Yoko to history as "the woman who broke up The Beatles." History is much more complicated than that of course, but that became the myth in the eyes of pop culture. In Lennon's eyes, however, it was love - despite a one-year separation in the early '70s, Ono was Lennon's steadfast companion until the end of his life.


Today In Music History, March 19: Simon and Garfunkel Are ... Tom and Jerry?

Birthdays:

Terry Hall, lead singer for the Specials is 53 today.

Today In:

1957 - Elvis Presley purchased a big house, in fact, a mansion, in Memphis and christened it Graceland.

1974 - Jefferson Airplane rename themselves Jefferson Starship.

1988 - Michael Jackson starts construction on his Neverland ranch and amusement park.

2002 - A stewardess testifies at Peter Buck's air rage trial that she was "scared to death" that the R.E.M. guitarist would stab someone after hiding a knife up his sleeve during his in-air rampage on board a British Airways flight. Buck is later acquitted.

2002 - The Strokes get into a fistfight with a record executive in Paris. The RCA employee was trying to force the exhaused group to appear on a TV show when singer Julian Casablancas whacked him.

History Highlight::

Today in 1958, Simon and Garfunkel release their first single, "Our Song," under the moniker Tom and Jerry. The two had adopted their stage names while performing together first during their junior year in high school, and apparently, hadn't intended it to be a reference in any way to the popular cat and mouse cartoon of the same name.



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